Spray coating machine



y v J.. s. PETERSEN ET'AL 2,376,980

SPRAY comma MACHINE FiledA-ug. 21., 1942 INVENTORS 2' 1 34 v J. STEWART PETERSEN JOHN w. MILLE HERBERT L,.WENDSHUH 3s- 37 BERNAR H; MOSER FIG. 3

' "A'TTQRNEY NI-rap STATES-,Q-Y'PATE v If Patented May 29, 1945 v NT? orslcs srnar coa'rmo MACHINE Julius Stewart Petersen,

John W. Miller, Toledo,

\ Maumee, and Bernard 1!. Honor,

Burlington, Iowa, and

HerbertL. Wendshnh,

Toledo, Ohio,

assignors to The De Viibiss Company, Toledo, 7 Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application' August 21, 1942, serial No. 455,572

6 Claims. (01. 91 5) This is particularly advantageous in a-spray coating machine as otherwise the spray material will not only be wasted but th article support on the conveyor will cleaning.

become coated and will require.

Another important object is the provision in such a machine of control means placed some dis the guides 4 and 5 and ride upon the edge'of minated as the chain reaches the sprocket as the sprocketv itself supports the chain on: the inner side during its contact with it.

The chain has laterally extending link members 6 which slide along the uppersurfaces of the sprocket 2. Every third pin ofthe chain conveyor has an article supporting extension 1 revolvabie with the pin. On'each extension 1 is mounted a V pulley 8'. As the article draws near the spraying station 31in this case from the left as the chain conveyor moves with the sprocket in a counter-clockwise direction) a moving tance from the treating station. This prevents the treating operation such as spray coating from meetin by the deposit of stray spray particles, the proper operation of the control A further object of'the invention a machine having control means which includes .a fingering device along the conveyor ahead of the treating station to determine the presence or absence of an article upon each article support on the conveyor and a mechanism associated with thedetermining device for presence or absence of an article recording the and later using the record in actuating the treating means when each support holding an article ing stationvand in each support upon reaches the station.

Other objects and advanta preventing will be apparent as it p the following description and the accompanying drawing which disclose ses of the invention is better understood from a preferred embodiment in the form of an automatic spray coating machine Figure 1,

Referringtothe drawing: 1 is atop planviewofaspray machine em odying our invention, with parts broken away;

- Figure-2 is a front with the left side in tions broken away:

elevation of the machine section and with lower por and Figures 3 and 4 show the spray gun actuating pins.-

In Figures 1 and 2 the chain conve on is shown carrying past the mounted on shaft 4| driven and is supported veyor has an exterior articles around the sp spraying station I. The sp' nsleiron supnortihgsili V l similar interior through which it may be on bearing 42." conuide: I. 'l'hese'ai'eftcr is to provide reachesflle treatactuation when which there is no article;

, assembly including other members it, ",11 and l8. v

.On the forward end of the platform it is mounted an air operated spray ,gun It of consetting meansfor the I form 22 is supported ventional design (having an air piston attached to the liquid discharge valve). plies coating liquid to the spray gun while tubing 2| furnishes air to the gun for atomization and to move the air piston attached tothe liquid coating valve within them Asecondar platof platform It by being fastened to strap-like downward extension Ila form ll. Upon this V mounted an air valve assembly 23 controlling the passage of air throughthe tube II.

To the of the a link rod 24 which is to a reciprocable crank plat il with a protruding nose section 26 whichnormally extends over from platthe edge of. platform 22, aslshown indotted lines heid a horizontally i0 is mounted on aft tlisanarmi'i."

armll is a downwardlyi'acing piece ll. v'l'hearmitl swings to linger, member 28' andvalso 8 rotatingit and general supporting Y below the forward portion the ends ofplatform is 1 air valve 23 is connected I fastened'at. its other end 21 at the rear vertical shaft with one end fastened to theishait slightly above the conveyor movement is limited by the stop member W2 vertical pins 34. These are near the outer edge of the-sprocket and each pin' is located onthe sprocket along the side of an article supporting member on the chain and lying between the support. and the center of the sprocket. when the 3| and the inclined piece 32 are moved out of the path of the pins it However, when an article j is not on an article support of the conveyor the finger 2! moves partially over the conveyor as shown in the dotted lines in Figure 1 and the arm 3| moves with it to bring piece 32 in the path pins I3.

The pin 33 lying between the center of the sprocket and the particular article'support upon which there is no article, advances against the inclined guide piece 32 and is moved downwardly by it through the sprocket as indicated in-Figure 3, bringing the top of thepin down below the level of the platform 22. when therefore the particular article support involved reaches the spraying station 1, the nose of the crank member 'willnot be contacted by the pin and ac- 1 cordingly remains extended over the edge of plat- 3 form 22. 'The valve 23 thus remains'closed and the spray gun is not operated. As may be uni derstood, the pin 22 in its upper position contacts the nose member 28 01 the crank plate It pushing it back and through. the link member 24 opens the valve 22 permitting actuating and atomizing air toreachthe spray gun It and thus causes it to discharge a spray against an article at spray station I.

As the pinscontinue their travel with the sprocket 2 they pass over an upwardly inclined guide member 35. supported on horizontal angle iron 28 which is fastened to the upright member .is .of the supporting" structure.- This inclined guide piece ll forcesany pins which have been. moved down into their lower position by the arm 3|, back into their upper and valve actuating position.

Fastened to the underside of the sprocket 2 is a flat .ring 31. This is positioned at the same radial distance from the centerot the sprocket as the pins as, and acts with its supplemental parts to support the pins and maintain them in actuating or non-actuating position. On the lower end of each pin is an annular groove 38. when the pin is in its upper or valve actuating position a metal ball it is thrust into the groove by a horizontally mounted on the angle 21 against which arm 3| strikes. In a circle about the centerof and through the sprocket 2 are mounted-a serie's of finger member 2! is held away from the chain by contact with an article being carried by it the arm 1 asvaoso departing from the spirit and scope of the tion. We claim as our invention:

1. In an automatic spray coating machine, a

" spray station, a conveyor for carrying to the spray station a series of articles to be coated. holders for the articles regularly spaced along the conveyor, a spray nozzle at the spray station for coating each article, a control valve for the spray nozzle, a series of actuator pins'for the control valve, 8. carrier to successively bring the pins into ac-' tuating contact with the control valve,.the pins being reciprocably mounted in regularly spaced relation-upon the carrier and being operative when reaching the control valve in one position of their reciprocal movement and non-operative in another, means for synchronizing the movements of the article conveyor and the pin carrier so that a pin reaches the control valve at the same time. as an article holder reaches the spray station, a finger positioned a predetermined distance ahead of the spray station along the path of the conveyor. a swingable mounting for the finger, means for yieldingly swinging the finger acrossthe path of the articles carried by-the conve'yor when there is no article to hold the finger 'away, and a pin setting cam associated with the finger and responsive to its position to pre-set the pin which will reachthecontrol valve at the sometime as the article holden currently passing the finger, reaches the spray station.

2'. In an automatic coating machine, a spray station, a spray gun at thestation, a valve for actuating the spray gun. a 'series of trippers for the valve, a carrier for the trippers upon which they are regularly spaced, a mounting for reciprocatably holding each tripper, means for moving the carrier along a path past the valve, and cam means at a point along'the path ahead ofthe valve for engaging' each tripper and moving it from one position to a second predetermined position in the mounting in which it is reciprocably held, in one of such positions the tripper being effective when reaching the valve to trip'it and thus actuate the spray gun and in the other-of such positions the tripper being non-effective to 3. In an automatic spray coating machine, a spray station, a conveyor for bringing a succession of articles to the spray station, individual article supports regularly spaced upon the conveyor, a spray gun for discharging coating material upon each article brought to the spray station, a valve outside of the spray station for operating the spray gun, a series of regularly spaced valve trip I ping members, a carrier for the tripping members disposed spring 3|. This spring tension resists any tendency of the pin to drop downwardly because of its weight or the eil'ect of its contact with the crank nose 2'. The tensionof spring 30 of course is not sufiicient to interfere with the downward movement of the pin caused by 0011 tact with depressor piece 82. The weight of the pins seems to sumce to keep them in their lower or non-actuating positions.

It may be seen therefore that .the invention comprises a simple but emcient arrangement to actuate the spray gun when-and only when an article is at the spray station ready to be coated.

As may be apparent, various changes may be I made in the form, constructiomandarrangement oi the parts, particularly in respect to the setting travelling in a path running from a point along the conveyor and spaced ahead of the spray station to the valve locatiomeach tripping member having a valve tripping'and a valve non-tripping position on the carrier, cam means along the path of the carrier ahead of the valve location for set- ,ting each tripping member in tripping or non- 1 tripping position, and intereng aing means between the conveyor and the carrier to synchronize I 2 their travel so that an article holder reaches the spraystation' at the same time that a tripping member reaches the valve location.

4'. In an automatic coating, machine. a spray station, a conveyor for bringing a succession of articles to the spray station, individual article support! on the conveyor, a spray gun for 'dischaixing coating material upon each article brought to the spray station, a feeler finger positioned along the path or the conveyor for deterinveneach article support at a point ahead of the spray station, means for swingingly supporting the i'eeler finger, means tending to swing the finger across the conveyor in the path of the articles carried by the conveyor, a valve outside of the spray station controlling the spray gun discharge, a valve tripping member, carrier means for transporting the tripping member from the position of the finger to the valve, the tripping member having a valve tripping position on the carrier and a valve non-trippingposition on the carrier, and cam means associated with the finger for setting the tripping member in its non-tripping position when the finger swings freely across the path of the articles on the conveyor and setting the trip-,

. across each articlesupport on the conveyorwhenever there is no article on the support to prevent such swinging movement, a. valve trippingmember, a carrier for the member travelling in a regular path from the i'eeler finger to the spray gun actuating valve, an effective and a non-eifective position on the carrier for the valve tripping member, cam means associated with the finger and engaging the valve tripping member to set it into its non-eii'ective position when the finger mining the presence or absence of an article on engaging means synchronizing the conveyor and carrier movement so that the valve tripping member travels from the finger to the spray gun actuating valve in the same time that an article support travels from the finger to the spray station.

6. In an automatic spray coating-machine, a spray station, a chain conveyor, regularly spaced supports on the conveyor for articles to be sprayed at the station, a spray gun at the station,

, a sprocket around which the chain conveyor travels, a valve for operatingthe spray gun, a

series of valve trippers reciprocatably mounted equidistant from each other in a concentric circle upon the sprocket, the spacing of the article supports upon the conveyor and the spacing of the trippers on the sprocket being predetermined to provide the same number of supports and trippers in the sector of the sprocket including the portion of the chain conveyor contacting the sprocket, means to move each tripper in its individual mounting into a position whereit is eflective to trip the valve when the sprocket carries it to the valve location, a finger for determining the presence or absence of an article on each article support, means for s'wingingly supporting the finger,

means for tending to swing the finger across each 5 article support when no article is in the support and cam means connected with the finger and swinging therewith to contact and move one of the valve trippers out of itsefiective position when the finger swings across an empty article support. J. STEWART,,PETERSEN.

' JOHN W. MILLER.

HERBERT L; WENDSHUH. BERNARD H, MOSER.

moves across an empty'article support, and inter- 

